My Weblog on Bioinformatics, Genome Science and Next Generation Sequencing

Thursday, 28 March 2013

Nature Special:"The Future of Publishing"

The fact that NPG has published a special on "The Future of Publishing" shows that change is underway. The special gives a balanced view including M. Eisen's views (as reported by Van Noorden The True Cost of Science Publishing ) but naturally the message that they wish to convey is in the last (concluding) article in the series.

“As a young investigator you have to do what's economically viable,” says Stephen Macknik, a neuroscientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, Arizona. Paying an article-processing charge for a reputable open-access journal may be a good middle ground for young researchers, he says.But scientists shouldn't sacrifice funding that was meant for research. “To maximize their competitiveness it is vital that young researchers maintain a productive profile of high-quality research, and this means using research funds to do as much high-quality research as possible,” says Chambers. “It falls to the more senior scientists to change the system.”

BOOKS AND ARTS

Robert Darnton heads the world's largest collection of academic publications, the Harvard University Library system. He is also a driver behind the new Digital Public Library of America. Ahead of its launch in April, he talks about Google, science journals and the open-access debate.